The Folks behind the Toons
Majer Fleischer was born July 19, 1883, to a Jewish family in Kraków, Poland (then in the Austrian Partition of the Austro-Hungarian Empire). He was the second of six children of a tailor. The family emigrated to the United States in 1887, where upon Majer’s name was changed to ‘Max.’ The family settled in New York City and Fleischer received commercial art training at Cooper Union followed by the Art Students League of New York. He also attended the Mechanics and Tradesman's School in midtown Manhattan.
Fleischer began his career at The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Starting off as an errand boy, he advanced to photographer, photoengraver, and eventually staff cartoonist. It was during this period he met newspaper cartoonist and early animator, John Randolph Bray, who would later give him his start in the animation field.
In December of 1905, Fleischer married his childhood sweetheart, Ethel Goldstein and not long thereafter was hired as a technical illustrator for the Electro-Light Engraving Company in Boston. It was around this time that Fleischer and his brothers began their initial designs for rotoscoping.
This rotoscoping process entails animation through a combined projector and easel for tracing images from a live-action film. This provided a more realistic and fluid animation style. Fleischer and his brothers were finally awarded a patent for the rotoscope in 1917 and it would go on to become a tool that revolutionized the medium of animation and film.
With the outbreak of World War I, Fleischer was sent to Fort Sill, Oklahoma to produce Army training films on subjects that included Contour Map Reading, Operating the Stokes Mortar, Firing the Lewis Machine Gun, and Submarine Mine Laying. Following the war, Fleischer continued to hone his craft. He helped found Red Seal Pictures and created a highly popular series of animated films that were known as sing-along shorts. The films had the song verses on the bottom of the screen with a bouncing red ball that instructed young audiences when to sing the lyrics.
Fleischer Studios, Inc. was established in 1929. Early productions from the studio included shorts featuring Betty Boop. Boop was born out of a cameo caricature in the early Talkartoon called Dizzy Dishes.
Fashioned after popular singer Helen Kane, she originated as a hybrid poodle/canine figure and was such a sensation that Fleischer to develop her into a continuing character (altering her design into a more human character). Helen Kane ended up suing Fleischer Studios over the likeness between her and Betty Boop. The case was ultimately dismissed. Others still believe Boop was inspired by performer Esther 'Lee'Baby Esther' Jones.
Alongside the Betty Boop films, Fleischer additionally licensed the rights to make cartoon based on Elzie Segar’s character, Popeye the Sailor. The Popeye films were a huge hit and Popeye soon began to rival Disney’s Micky Mouse as America’s most beloved cartoon character.
Fleischer Studios continued to produce Popeye and Betty Boop films up through the 1940s. In 1941, Fleischer produced and co-directed a ten minute film entitled Superman: The Mad Scientist. This was the first cartoon adventure featuring Siegel and Shuster’s Man of Steel and was a sensation.
It was followed by several more Superman films, including Superman: The Mechanical Monsters, Superman: The Magnetic Telescope, Superman: The Arctic Giant and others. Fleischer’s fluid and dynamic style was particularly well suited for depicting Superman’s exciting and fast-paced heroics. The films are remembered as among the best superhero cartoons every produced. Bruce Timm credits Fleischer's Superman films as a major inspiration for Batman: The Animated Series.
Fleischer produced and directed many other cartoon films, including Sneek, Snoop and Snitch, King for A Day, The Dandy Lion, The Raven and an animated iteration of Johnny Gruelle’s characters Raggedy Ann and Andy.
Fleischer produced training films for the Army and Navy during the Second World War. He was additionally involved with top-secret research and development for the war effort including an aircraft bomber sighting system. Following the war, he supervised the production of the animated adaptation of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
Fleischer maintained a longstanding rivalry with Walt Disney Pictures. In an ironic twist, Fleischer’s eldest son, Richard was hired to direct the Disney feature film, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Ricard Fleischer would go on to become a highly successful movie director, helming movies such as Fantastic Voyage, Doctor Dolittle, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Soylent Green and Conan the Destroyer. Richard’s getting his first big break at Disney acted to cool tensions between the elder Fleischer and Disney.
Stepping away from producing and directing, Fleischer instead focused on technical development. His efforts resulted in a reflex camera viewfinder and research into line transfer methods to replace the time-consuming and tedious process of cel inking.
Fleischer retired in 1965 and he and his wife moved to Los Angeles. He passed away on September 11, 1972, two months after his 89th birthday.